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The World Between The Seas The Vath Imperium Vath Before humanity came to it, some ancient conflict saw Tor Vath bombed by sunlight, bleachig the color from it and surrounding areas in ways nowhere else in this land has seen. The sun-bombed stonework of Tor Vath, raised walls and ground-level aqueducts lead to a circular city plan digging into the ground, with the Tor itself rising from the middle. It is said beneath the Tor lies one of the ancient dragons, though the truth of this is subject to debate. One thing is certain, though: The Tor existed long before humans or elves came to this place. Evidence suggests the tower rose much higher at some point in the past, and its dip below the surrounding terrain follows a mathematically perfect curve. Surrounding the Tor are many such impressions in the terrain, with ruined towers at their centers as well; these form the watchtowers of the city's current walls. Surrounding the capital, fortified farms, and the aqueducts themselves lead to their source lakes and rivers. Imperial fortifications (and farmland) occur along the aqueducts, despite Vath itself being grassland and steppe and largely arable. Roads link small villages throughout the Vathrian countryside; the largest concentration is townships immediately surrounding Tor Vath's exterior walls. Construction is largely stone, with several quarries existing in the southeast, as the name this mountain range rises. Also within Vath is the majority of the remaining dzerva. They maintain an "academy" (really, a walking fortress) that is currently entrenched some five miles outside the north gate of Tor Vath. This school is known as the Dzerviy Foundation. Ubu northwest of Vath, bordering the land bridge leading to Manuqua. Largely coastal, elevation rises very gradually so the 'beach' is several miles wide, interrupted by tusklike cliff formations and other stony outcroppings. Many rivers have their deltas in Ubu, leading to a landmass crisscrossed with watery channels. Before Vath invaded, the Kiribanu elves deviated wildly between fighting the Moro'a and peacefully trading with them; largely, it depended upon the community. With Vathrian annexation and occupation, a tenser peace is in effect and desegregated communities have been 'encouraged' to form. Cultural integration is poor. Vathrian stone forts are adjacent to settlements made of coquina and rattan. Also in Ubu are the ruins of a fortress known as Conch, a great, crumbling shell sitting alone in the water. Once, Conch was the sanctum of Verac, god of lies, darkness, and the sea. Lindl Northeast of Vath, its grasslands give way to fens and marshes with clusters of swampy forest emerging throughout, thanks in no small part to the proximity to the Storm. While Lindl is, as a province, formally annexed and claimed by the Empire, its land is mostly wild. What agriculture exists in Lindl is centrally-located within its denizens' floating, easily-abandoned villages. Typically, their crop of choice is rice. One real city exists in Lindl, called Aquell. Situated atop the ruins of an ancient fortification sinking slowly into a lake, Aquell's wooden buildings use its stone as a foundation, with numerous causeways crossing each other above the lake waters. Imperial outposts within Lindl are rarely more than timber-walled baileys enclosing yurt and marquee networks, with wood-plank flooring to help keep the water below where you sleep. Given the relative lack of security in Lindl, these outposts often move. Choka Northernmost province of the Empire. Choka borders Ubu and Lindl to the southeast and southwest, and is itself a broad range of terrain types - initially forested grassland to the south, but rapidly as one travels inland it becomes intensely hostile badlands. The coasts of Choka alternate between beach-on-grassland and high, rocky cliff. Chokan farming communities exist within the grasslands, but the Chokan capital - Keep's Landing - is built of the remains of a flying fortress and several airships whose magic failed them, collapsing to ruins here within Choka's northern badlands. Keep's Landing is also considered a holy site by the Garosh elves of the region, with many of their elders maintaining permanent residences in the ruins. Everybody there is pretty cool with it, these elves have been there forever and will probably be there long after they all are dead. The settlement aside, the Chokan badlands are very hostile for travellers; something about the terrain leads to roads never being truly permanent, and with there being ever many travellers to Keep's Landing, bandits prey upon those who travel alone or in small groups. This has led to heavily-armed caravans being the bulk of the traffic one is likely to encounter in the area. Choka is simultaneously the best and worst culturally-integrated province of the Empire. The Garosh elves get on great with the humans, and maintain fairly neutral relations with the Kiribanu, leading to Keep's Landing being a very multicultural settlement. The Turbulent Center The One Safe Haven: Tal Bha, Last Living Satrapy of Shandu The city sits at a regional confluence. It receives the rains and thunderfolk of the Storm, the distorted spatial tears and dead persons of the Dead Length, the harsh sands and living architecture of the Crimes, and the raiding communities of the Haarn. In spite of all this, Tal Bha has survived even the fall of its own principality, as its satrap in that time refused to have the city as thoroughly engraved as others. When Shandu fell, Tal Bha lost only its observatory, now walled-in as an unsafe portal to places unfathomable. In the intervening time, the sole rule of a satrap has fallen by the wayside with an internally-selected oligarchic council of merchant-philosophers adjudicating the city's government. They operate from and live cloistered within the former satrap's palace, now termed the Learned Enclave. In modern times, Tal Bha persists as an oasis of stability where myriad hostilities converge. As it is situated directly between the southern reaches of the Storm and the northern reaches of the Dead Length, it is one of very few viable passes between Vath and Alalku, and as such serves both states as facilitator of negotiation and trade. Tal Bha is a square-plan city, with rooftop gardens and farms under a ventilated but substantial array of canopies serving as raincatchers. Most homes in Tal Bha also have private subterranes, and the city is known for its network of 'dzerv tunnels' dug by its residents for emergency purposes; many supply caches and deposits of treasure are rumoured to exist down below. A prominent aquifer further below this tunnel network supplies the other portion of the city's water, and connects to cramped and distant reaches of the World Below. The city is divided into a number of districts, with the Learned Enclave located roughly at its center. The immediate surrounds form the District of Academies - though, historically, the Academies were noble villas and military barracks. Following avenues outward from the Academies along cardinal directions are the Avenues of Commerce: The Avenues of Gold, Salt, Lead, and Steel. The Storm The Storm is the 'new name' for an enormous region believed by Unborn oral histories and pictographic paintings to be the cradle of Unborn civilization. In bhesa, the Storm is called Ā Guphā, or simply "the cave". What the Storm was and what the Storm is are profoundly different things. The Storm was, according to legend, once a site of great peace and development, where all peoples were welcome to join as one in a mystical city set "above the foothills, beneath the wind", called Śahēra Jhaḷakē, ''or the Shining City. According to the Outsiders, the Shining City was and yet still is within the Storm... ''probably. The certainty of Outsiders regarding the existence of the City is absolute, as is their confidence regarding the continued presence of the city within the Storm - their uncertainty lies in whether it existed prior to the current era, though its presence in legend suggests this to be so. The Storm is a broad region of mountainous territory continuously under the effect of a powerful hurricane, boldly wreathed in lightning and constantly vomiting rainfall at the ground. The mountains under the Storm are badly pitted and eroded from the constant rainfall, and the soil has become a muddy slurry. What few trees remain are waterlogged rotting husks of their prior selves, slumped against the stone. The perpetuity of the hurricane renders exploratory ventures into the Storm incredibly dangerous - with the exception of the Storm, none leave the Storm. Within the Storm dwell the Thunderfolk, also called the Lightning People or, confusingly and inconveniently, also the Storm. Rarely, the Storm will 'swell' and extend its rainfall and thunderstorm activity outward, toward a settlement, and lightning will strike the ground. From the lightning emerges the Thunderfolk, and typically that settlement will suffer grievous losses from their assault. Thunderfolk always retrieve their own injured or dead, and are known to kidnap people from the settlements they attack, with no preference of species or gender. Thunderfolk do not take children. The Twelve Crimes of Canedwehr inc red/white sands, sand flurries, buried geometric ruins, lots of ambient elemental magic. Sanctum: Fulcrum, lost deep within its dunes. The Dead Length (Principality of Shandu) Shandu was once a well-fortified city-state princedom with loyal satrapies surrounding it, largely embedded within and entrenched within a massive, expansively eroded canyon. Looking posts situated along the canyon's walls maintained its borders, and it enjoyed a golden age of intellectualism and productivity, with active, verdant farmlands despite the desert regions to its west and the harsh savannah to the northeast. Some thousand years ago, during an intellectual renaissance, Shandu saw the rise of a prominent scholarly individual, the scrivener Khamidoon, who had devised a means of rapidly passing messages and, eventually, persons between the many regions within Shandu. Eventually, this was expanded to include other places as well, including places removed from the world by time or tragedy. Khamidoon, whether by accident or intent, brought ruin upon the entire nation of Shandu: The sum of its territory, being all places bounded by his writing, was fallen upon by a dreadful mist and all living persons within died, to rise again. Stories sometimes circulate, from those few adventurers who survive to escape the place, of meeting and treating with Khamidoon - still himself very much alive. Shandu is a shattered land. Travelling into it, space becomes disjointed and impossible. Compasses cease functioning predictably, but may serve to navigate between shards of the principality. The Dread Mist obscures visibility beyond a certain distance, and conventional physics no longer operate as expected. The Dread Mist makes living the dead, and makes dead the living. Life and death, within Shandu, have ceased to bear conventional meaning. It is a place where worldly meaning has been overwritten. Eastern Free States Bel Moro Rolling, green hills of lush grassland. Something about the land here coaxes plantlife of any sort to grow abundantly. The Moro'a ancestrally call this place home, and despite their issues with memory and long-term remembrance, a tradition of burial has been maintained throughout the ages. It is theorized by some that the large hills of Bel Moro are ancient burial mounds. In places, intricate mazes similar to those found in Kussgo protrude from the ground up to one foot in height. The Moro'a do not keep conventional villages or cities. A cultural tradition holds that those that do maintain permanent residences - traders and merchants, generally - maintain a sheltered location for guests. Many of the permanent residences of the region have been that way for many hundreds of years and are noted on maps of the area - and many of those are the ruins of an even older place. It is said that when night falls in Bel Moro, hungry creatures emerge from old places to seize the unwary. The locals refer to them as night gaunts. Haarn inc "The Haarn is a country-sized mesa a little bit west of Alalku, south of Bel Moro, and brushes immediately up against the Dead Length. Given its height, people who call the Haarn home don't really have to concern themselves with most of the Dead Things that tend to emerge from what's left of Shandu. Its upper surface is kind of a microcosm of international affairs, as it has a lot of the same breadth of tribal representation that Vath does but without the unifying force of the God of Diplomats." Skyward Peninsula Hooking out to the southeast of the continent khtrl, the Skyward Peninsula is a somewhat large region home to exactly one settlement - the Peshqil monastery, Aíthousarithmó̱n, translated loosely into Vathrian as the Many Halls of Calculation. The Peninsula has a prominent natural upward thrust and is largely formed of hexagonal pillars of basalt, though mossy, grassy soil has developed on its surface. The higher the upthrust portion of the Peninsula, the scarcer trees and other standing plants become. Built into a cliffside, the Many Halls form an intricate nested vertical structure, fashioned from carved bricks where it could not be cut into the Skyward Peninsula itself. At the highest point of the Peninsula, the Many Halls continue upward in something of a very short dodecagonal tower with minarets positioned at its angles. The bricks and tiles of the Many Halls are thoroughly decorated with mathematical proofs and illustrations of mathematical concepts. Outsiders are rarely let to venture within the deeper Halls, but are free to occupy themselves in guest chambers or the stacked and terraced water gardens used to produce the vegetation on which the community subsists. Occasionally, a more public lecture on dharmathic theory will be held in these less mysterious chambers. The enigmatic leadership of Aíthousarithmó̱n frequently organizes Learned Expeditions into hostile territory, composed of handfuls of adventurous and capable monks. These expeditions frequently have a single clear objective and, just as frequently, result in collaborative efforts between these Aíthousarithmó̱n monks and foreign adventurers. Alalku inc *detail me Small Island Nations Tiam Lotha A densely-jungled atoll, Tiam Lotha is considered one of the last bastions of a world before the world to the local populace. The cultural belief is that some time in the past, a great event (the Sos Domhan) occurred where some great force chewed the world to pieces and digested it anew. There are thirty-seven islands in the Tiam Lotha atoll, with the majority of these small islands on the eastern portion of the island ring, forming a general crescent shape. In the west, the islands are often more sandy than jungled, but in the east the ocean water does not prevent the jungle's spread - tall, 'legged' mangrove trees maintain continuity of the tree canopy. Beneath the jungles of Tiam Lotha, the sand and soil are frequently punctuated by collapsed ruins, called áiteanna ón am roimh or places from the time before, often seeming to have been smashed into each other with great force - the terrain of the islands lend a great deal of credence to the myths of the local Tiam Lothans. These ruins have frequently been built upon, used as support structures where viable or paved over where necessary. Most of the áiteanna ''are constructed of a glasslike substance harder than steel, and many of them have yet to be delved into even in the many, many years of Tiam Lothan civilization - as robust a material as the steelglass is, breaking into these collapsed structures is both difficult and quite hazardous. Modern construction on Tiam Lotha, however, ''mimic these ruins to some degree - at the very least, striving for the same incandescent transparency of construction for the desired effect of the interplay of light, glassy construct, and jungled canopy is a prominent influence in Tiam Lothan urban planning. Permitting light to enter structures freely also promotes interior hydroponic farming and has a positive effect on corpomancy. Given the surroundings and cultural inclination within Tiam Lotha to engineer servant-creatures to complete tasks, towns and cities within the atoll are often offputting or highly alien to visitors. The Great Architects - the academic ruling elite of learned Saypa social, biological, and urban engineers - manage entry into and passage from Tiam Lotha very carefully, to minimize public panic and assure positive experiences are shared by all. There is an open door policy for Peshqil to enter the country - as researchers and observers the information shared between the Architects and the Peshqil has benefited both greatly. Kiribanu inc stuff about tropical elves The Sunken Necropolis of Kosh When Shandu broke, with its breaking came the slow spread of undeath throughout the land. Many places found their traditional burial practises unreliable when it came to preventing the dead from becoming animate. The Shandu expatriates - marked by the horrific event of their survival - were granted by Vaato an unused island city, long abandoned due to its sinking. The gesture at first seemed backhanded to the Shandu expatriates, until it was discerned the city's sinking had been arrested and many of the higher-level structures still quite fit for use and quite expansive. The city, once Kosh, became Kosh once more. Kosh is a service nation, with two principal services it provides: Kosh keeps the dead, and Kosh keeps the histories. The libraries of Kosh are truly ancient and nearly unrivalled in terms of the depth and breadth of the records able to be found within, and those survivors who had some knowledge of Khamidoon's ways are able to entomb and dispose of bodies in such a way as to prevent them from ever becoming a threat. Payment for these services is rendered less frequently in coin than in food offerings and raw materials such as textiles or timber. Within Kosh, the people maintain something of a barter economy - though there is a complex social structure incorporating old Shandu nobility and reformatory Scriveners relative to most Koshin. These days, a time of curious plenty has descended upon Kosh as it is a time of much death. The Menneveh inc an illustrated book about birds The World Beyond The Sun An eastern continent. Has its own peoples and cultures. Expand on this; give it more life. The Black Empire, Han Nos Ull inc detail me. Doomed Realms The Worldscar A massive hole bored into a mountain range. The Worldscar represents an event of 'draconic impact' according to tales - a blow struck so powerful it obliterated the terrain it crossed, until it finally slowed and stopped underneath one of the towering peaks of Hron. This destructive path exposed numerous tunnels winding below the surface of hnhrl, in which dwell the people who would be known as the Scar-Vaalk. Communities in the Worldscar are highly mobile, for alongside the Scar-Vaalk there are many horrific creatures in the tunnel systems. Most of these nomadic communities consist of several families and migrate following the movements of the giant burrowing insects upon which they prey and the fungal colonies they gather. The Worldscar has but one stable community, a meta-warren cluster built in and around the subterranean ruins of a long-gone magical society: The Threceanic Nail. Those who maintain permanent homes within the Threceanic Nail have developed a great deal of facility with its dwindling magical constructs and many Scar-Vaalk have taught themselves witchcraft and developed a culture around maintaining the arcane devices and witch-gardens within the structure. The deepest tunnels of the Worldscar link to the World Below the World. Thus, the people of the Worldscar have cultural memory of the dzerva and rén. Certain Rén states have adopted populations of Scar-Vaalk as second-class citizens. The Painted Valleys/Murderpeaks of Hron inc Needles of multicoloured stone Pae Mheu Phracea, Jungle of the Cat Goddess inc Mheu Phracea, the great cat of fortune, dwells here with her people, the Mheunn. Txangtaw, The Ceaseless Steppes Txangtaw has few noteworthy landmarks, rendering its common nickname all the more apt. A flat, massive expanse of grasslands of varying colour, dotted by extremely uncommon scatterings of short, twisted trees is all that most will find in Txangtaw. The heat warps perception of the horizon, and the shifting colours of grass - between greens and golds, reds and browns, and the occasional shock of curious blue or purple - serve as little more than a way by which most travelers can misread their landmarks and lose their way. Few trade routes cross Txangtaw, for Txangtaw marks a vast expanse between two extraordinarily navigable river systems for which there is very little reason to cross. The further inland one gets from the rivers, the less likely one is to ever return. However, at the heart of Txangtaw lies an unusual occurrence: Numerous oases well up, and a spiderlike network of rivers and canals links them. In and around this network, the Txangtanese riverfolk have built their sod-roofed low huts, and maintain their simple gardens, and fowl for small game. They amount to some nine or ten sprawling villages and simple farms, the Hearthome, at the very center of which lies a henge in which the people of Txangtaw gather and perform various social rituals involving dance, song, poetry and intoxication. They do this to celebrate virtually anything, from their marking of the year, the passing of the moons, the comings and goings of noteworthy storms, the biannual passages of the birds and herds, and most importantly, the arrival of travellers. For this reason, Eastern maps have begun to mark the presence of Hearthome - for though it is surrounded by many dangers, it is a place where almost anyone can feel welcome. The Faib City-States The World Ship's Country, Dunia-meli-nchi inc Home of the Kav. Kussgo The city-state of Kussgo is only nominally a Faib state, in that it grudgingly recognizes the nonagression treaties it historically drafted with its two Straava neighbours. The city of Kussgo is sprawling and labyrinthine, constructed of layers of passages difficult or impossible to navigate, of strong and steep stone. The ruling parties meet in the deepest maze-quarters, in an ancient temple dedicated to a notion of a liminal state between being and nonbeing. Surrounding the city are miles of muddy farms, enclosed by three concentric bailey-walls constructed of greased and sharpened logs sandwiching greased earthen mazes. The servant classes work the farms, growing feed for themselves and the livestock, while the livestock that is slaughtered goes directly toward the carnivorous ruling classes. Kussgo is populated by two dominant populations: A rather large toiling populace of Moro'a held in a state of indentured servitude by the much scarcer, towering, physically and culturally dominant Kussgo Gigantes. The Moro'a condition of memory makes this relationship quite easy for the Kussgo Gigantes to maintain, given any uprising is largely forgotten within days and the Moro'a themselves find it difficult to successfully navigate the maze walls the Gigantes habitually construct. The bailey-walls of Kussgo completely enclose the territory the city-state claims. Within, there are few surviving forests - for much of that wood was claimed for the walls themselves - and little grassland remaining - for much of the terrain is devoted to the driven herds of indricothere. Ull and Upper and Lower Straava frequently describe Kussgo as the Brown Dark Maze. No other description could be more apt. No siege of Kussgo has ever succeeded. Historically, the conflicts fought between Han Nos Ull and the Faib city-states have come to Kussgo's doorstep, and Ullen mystics have breached its walls on occasion but even the most powerful of those magi inevitably fell to the might of the Gigantes. Upper and Lower Straava inc detail me The Worlds Without Manuqua Considered a place of legend and myth, Manuqua is only sometimes present in the world. When present and approachable, it can be observed to be in a process of slow disintegration, spreading its bizarre landscape across the ocean toward the mainland. This slow disintegration takes the form of scattered and highly mobile land bridges, largely as sandbars or rocky shoals jutting up from the water. When not present in the world, the sky over where Manuqua would be ''grows incredibly dark, with a sickly brownish hue to the air and a curious, wavering heat between sea and sky prevent a great deal of visibility. Ships awaiting this phenomena and purposefully seeking to explore the storm system (a rare and suicidal endeavour) often appear years later, many leagues from anywhere near their expected course and port of call. Sometimes the crew is still present and unchanged by the trip, others the ship is empty, and sometimes the remaining crew are something other than what they departed as, though ''what defies conventional definition. The terrain in Manuqua glistens wetly, as if alive. Its rocks carry a pearlescent sheen, similar to the Outsiders that call it their homeland but dwell far away from it. The air in Manuqua is thin, but carries a particular, chemical aroma; the sky seems green while there. Manuqua, in spite of its queer alien beauty, is incidentally hostile to visitors. The ground, water, and air all behave as if poison. The only outsiders known to have visited Manuqua and returned were Peshqil, and they died shortly after. There are tales of a city in Manuqua; it is rumoured to be called Nhuuork and is purportedly the place these Peshqil explorers visited. Little is known of it beyond these things. The World Above The World Atlan inc *detail me The World Below The World Yīqiān Dàolù inc *detail me The World Within The Moon inc *detail me